blue amberol question

[phonograph guy3435]

has anybodies blue amberol records turned a sort of purple hue? i have some who look almost new with how blue they are but others who are almost just black.

[drh]

Sure--the color does vary some, at least in my experience. Probably the original dye lots weren't entirely consistent, and of course different storage conditions over the years--temperature, exposure to light, etc.--could easily affect how the color has behaved since these things were new. Not too surprising considering that they were made over the course of about a couple of decades, including when World War I likely required raw material substitutions, and the newest of them is creeping up on a century old.

[MisterGramophone]

There are black amberols (1908-1912), blue amberols (1912-1929), and royal purple amberols (1912-1929).